3rd Batch of OSS AI Grants – A16Z

We just launched the third batch of Open Source AI Grants.

These are grants for independent researchers, hackers, and small teams doing foundational work in open source AI.

Our goal is to support the kind of experimentation, creativity, and transparency that keeps the AI ecosystem healthy and innovative.

This round includes projects focused on LLM evaluation, novel reasoning tests, infrastructure, and experimental research at the edge of capability and cognition.

*SGLang: high-performance LLM serving infra powering trillions of tokens daily

*Ostris: diffusion model training tools optimized for consumer GPUs

*Open WebUI: self-hosted AI platforms for full data sovereignty

*SWE-Bench / SWE-Agent: benchmarking and building AI software engineers

*ARC Prize: advancing AGI evals through reasoning benchmarks

*Truth_terminal: exploring AI autonomy and cultural influence via semi-autonomous agents

*Elder_plinius: researching LLM boundaries and prompt engineering strategies

*Janus: exploring AI’s philosophical and creative frontiers

Thank you to all the grantees for pushing things forward in the open. We are proud and grateful to support your work.

Let us know if therre are folks you believe we should support in the future!